


Test It Out

by starksnack



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1940s, Artist Steve Rogers, Best Friends, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Cheating on a test, Childhood Friends, Cute Kids, Fluff, Gen, High School, SAT, Silly, Students, Stupidity, Troll Steve Rogers, the SAT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 23:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17990345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksnack/pseuds/starksnack
Summary: The Scholastic Aptitude Test was first administered in 1926 as a way of creating a nationwide standard for the college admissions process.Steve and Bucky try their best.





	Test It Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starksec](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksec/gifts).



> This is for my friend [@yungstark](https://yungstark.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. We're both graduating this year and we were wondering if Steve Rogers had to take the SAT. Turns out he did, sucks to be him.

“I don’t understand why we gotta take the SAT,” Steve frowned, glaring at the red brick building in front of them. “I’m going to art school, why do I need to know how to read?”

Bucky snorted, as they walked up the stairs to the double doors. “I’m with ya pal, the army won’t care if I’m dumb as bricks s’long as I can fight.”

“Gosh,” Steve grumbled as he trudged after Bucky, “I haven’t even had my first cuppa joe.”

Bucky nodded sympathetically as he pulled open the door, ushering Steve in ahead of him. They paused in the entryway, scrounging up their student IDs from lint filled pockets to check in with the bluenose attended and get their room assignments. Steve wished he had been born a little earlier, then he wouldn’t even have had to bother with this new aptitude test that the god forsaken college board was putting out.

The hallways smelled like wax and ink as Steve and Bucky made their way to their rooms, shoulders brushing amicably even when the silence between them echoed like they were marching to their executions.

When they finally entered the room, Steve wrinkling his nose as their feet stuck to the carpet, they found seats beside each other. Bucky shot a wink straight off the cob at the cancelled stamps in the back and Steve watched with envy as they blushed back at him.

Their procter, a man who was as old as the school building itself, took a seat at the front, bushy eyebrows drawn low as he read of the introduction. He wore his cheaters at the tip of his nose, staring down at the sheets in front of him. There were a stack of tests on his desk and Steve almost felt bad as he creaked to his feet and slow as a slug, moved around the room to pass them out.

And then the clock was set. And Steve put his pencil to paper.

His brain chose that moment to pack up and skedaddle.

Steve stared down at the first part of the exam, his brows furrowed in confusion. It was a list of thirty two definitions that he was supposed to match to words. Reading over the list, Steve realized he knew absolutely nothing about the English language. He wasn’t a dewdropper by any means, but he sure as heck didn’t know what anything on the page meant.

He glanced over at Bucky, who didn’t really seem to be doing much better, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration. Two hands made light work right?

With a furtive glance at the proctor, Steve lightly rapped on his desk to get Bucky’s attention, raising his eyebrows in confusion at his best friend. Bucky shrugged, sending a series of taps back at Steve with glances at the other students testing around them. No one seemed to really care about them though, so he figured they were in the clear. Steve was grateful that he and Bucky had spent so much time playing spies as little kids because it meant that they were both fluent in morse code.

The examination proctor stood up suddenly, scaring Steve into looking at his test, hands flying into his lap as he read over the last two definitions. There was a fifty fifty chance of him getting it right, but only if they had gotten the last thirty one definitions correct. He knew Bucky was smart, but smart enough to pass the aptitude test? Highly unlikely.

He quickly filled them in as the proctor stuck his head out the door saying something about a tapping. They had been made. Steve bit his lip as he flipped the page to the math section. It was a good thing that he had a plan B.

The first question threw Steve for a loop. “If a man’s salary is $20 a week, and he spends $14 a week, how long will it take him to save $300?” Steve chewed the eraser on his pencil as he reread the question. Why was it a man? Why wasn’t a dame making $20 a week. Lord knows women did it better, his ma for example. Steve quickly scribbled 20 - 14 on his paper before frowning. He was supposed to carry the one right? And then ten minus four equals six? He was doing pretty well. He grinned at himself about to write down the answer when he read the rest of the question. Oh. Six plus six plus six until he got to 300. He debated just continuously adding six, but he figured that would probably take too long. Why did the man need to save money anyway? This was totally nuts. Steve frowned looking at Bucky.

“Caw,” Steve crowed, deep and low in the back of his throat. Where was a good low down when you needed it.

The proctor’s head shot up, eyes searching the rafters as Bucky snickered, glancing at Steve. They watches as he muttered something under his breath, grabbing a broom from the corner and smacking one of the ceiling lights with it.

"• − −   • • − − •   / − • • • • − • •   − − − • − − − •," Bucky replied with a snort, his eyes gleaming mischievously as the proctor continued to mutter angrily from the front of the room.

A couple of other students laughing gave Bucky the perfect opportunity to crow back five times and then hold up his fist. So the answer was fifty. Steve could have totally gotten that without help, but Bucky made it a lot faster.

The rest of the math questions went pretty much the same way, though Steve was proud to say that he could answer how many five cent pencils fifty cents could buy all by himself. 

When Steve got to the third subtest he felt like crying. There were forty lists of six words each and he was supposed to group three closely related words together. There was no way he could cheat with Bucky efficiently on this one. He glared down at the page, his face burning as he finally realized that he would fail this stupid test and never get accepted into art school.

With a sigh, he started grouping them together, tapping out his answers to Bucky by hitting his pencil against his chin and waiting for Bucky to click his tongue back in confirmation. They were taking too much time and as Steve looked up at the clock, he shot Bucky an apologetic look, guessing on most of the rest as Bucky shrugged and did the same.

It was forever before they reached the tenth subtest, passing answers back and forth between them as their proctor hit the light with a broom, trying to scare down a bird that wasn’t there.

They turned in their tests at the same time, thanking the proctor as they made tracks out of the building and into the fresh morning air. After being trapped in a moldy smelling classroom for so long, the hot Brooklyn smell of baking garbage was the most heavenly breath of fresh air. It was so exhilarating, Steve wanted to blow his wig right then and there.

That’s when Steve pulled his wallet out of his pocket and found that he didn’t have enough checkers to make the fare home. There was enough money for a scoop of vanilla though. He glanced up at Bucky who shrugged, the dumb abercrombie had probably spent all his Lincolns on a choice calico.

So maybe Steve had failed the Scholarly Aptitude Test and was too dumb to go to art school. He was hard boiled, he could always just enlist in the army with Bucky. With a shrug, he followed his best friend to their favourite ice cream parlour for scoops to celebrate a job well done.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has a tungle post [here](https://starksnack.tumblr.com/post/183081092218/test-it-out-steve-rogers-and-bucky-barnes) be sure to hit rb if you liked.  
> The questions used in this fic are from the actual SAT administered in 1926. I know Steve wouldn't have taken that one, but it was the easiest to find online. [Here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/22/heres-the-very-first-sat-from-1926-can-you-pass-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.28461bf5e47f) is a link to the test if you want to take it for yourself.  
> Be sure to follow me on [Tumbular](https://starksnack.tumblr.com/)for more shenanigans.


End file.
